The day after the Short Track Speed skating, I was still very much on a high. I was chatting to everyone about their experiences, and everything that I had seen the previous day. I told them about the speed of the Canadian girls, and the roar of the crowds. They would tell me of the lineups in Cypress bowl, and of the cancellations up there. Let's hope it doesn't continue, since some people are only here a certain number of nights, so cannot afford to be waiting around for the snow to get the skiing under way; they either see something now, or go home empty handed.
I got up in the morning and had a shower in my air-lock -rincipled bathroom, and made my way down to breakfast. I was staggered at the "spread" of things on offer, and how cool and calm Jason was in his kitchen, even with all of these people milling around. I asked for scrambled eggs, and got the equivalent of probably 4 eggs. I had toast made from lovely fresh bread, a cheese and herb scone, and ample quantities of the awesome frozen - then reconstituted - orange juice. Sounds disgustingly artificial, but is way better than even some freshly queezed because the juice is captured when the fruit is sweet.
Today was a day at leisure, so I resolved to go into the city and do some touristy stuff. First things were first though, so I managed to get online and speak to Liz while I was contemplating the day.
After talking and wishing each other happy valentines, I had made a rough plan to go down to the city center and look for stuff in the Olympic Superstore, which was part of the Bay department store. I would also look for something nice for Liz, and possibly for myself as well.
The The streets were thronging with people doing all manner of things. There were some awesome arts displays as part of the cultural Olympiad. Local people had made kantern cups to attach to these many artificial trees lining Granville Street - they would be illuminated at night. There were some unusual cut-outs into which people could form themselves, forcing poses ranging from the ski jump to the star jumps.
Moving further up the streets, I noticed a lineup that snaked out of the Royal Mint. It snaked, and kept snaking, until it petered out nearly a block away by a garbage can. This was in order for people to see the Olympic medals, and to see a specially minted $1Million coin. I would love to do this, but I'll wait until the lineup will be lesser towards the end of the games.
I got into the Bay store in Vancouver - 6 floors of stuff for sale, and all of this spawned out of the fur trade in the 1850's. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff on sale. There were confusing signs about a superstore on the top floor. When I got up there, this turned out to be for the bay to hawk their olympics clothing that they supply as the official Outfitter to the Olympic games, but this was not Olympics endorsed merchandising. I picked up a toque, blanket and Tshirt and headed downstairs to where I am sure I saw a huge official banner of the Olympics. Indeed there was a huge area of stuff, and people seemed to be in there but there wasn't any visible way of getting in there from inside the store.
Eventually it transpired that the entrance was outside the building on Seymour street, so I headed out there. I heard talk of a $1 entrance fee - what, to see stuff I might want to buy? Imagine paying to go into a store, inside of which you may not buy anything. When I finally hit the streets, the lineup seemed endlessly long, but moving very fast. How were people going in so quickly? Then I realised the likely cause - people probably didn't want to buy once they got in there. It could be due to prices, or stock levels, or both.
Forget that!
I walked around, went into a few places to soak up the atmosphere. I like to frequent coffee shops, and then stand in the street sipping and walking slowly.
I then went to what is now a Canadian institution - the Roots store. It's a clothing store, which is very proudly Canadian. Their stuff is nicely made, and their prices are medium to upper pricey. Service in Canadian stores is always superb, no matter where I seem to go. I explained to one of the girls a dilemma I was having finding something in a particular colour for my girlfriend, and she said to me "You know what, I can help you out with that". She took me to an island of shelves, got on her knees and reached behind a load of piles of tshirts to find the last few of what I was looking for. I was so happy she could help me out. I got around to paying for the stuff, and noticed they were giving away free wooley hats if you bought a certain amount on your mastercard. Bonus!
My plans for this valentines evening were to include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater. It was starting to get late, and I had been in two minds all day about what to do with my evening. I went down to the Orpheum theater to take a look at the ticket availability, but there was a sign on the door saying to call the VSO box office, or to go online. Well, I did not know of the location of the nearest internet cafe, and I had computer access for free back tha the Manor House to perform the booking. I decided to go back to the Manor Guest House and look up the site.
On the VSO site, the booking system seemed broken, so I phoned the VSO. The time was now 7:30pm - pants, the VSO starts at 8pm. It'll take a few minutes on the phone, 10 to get to the station, 20 to get across town and find the box office - I'd be cutting it fine. Maybe they'd take the booking on the phone. The guy explained that he didn't take bookings on the phone, and also that the door where I had seen the sign must have been the back door - the ticket office was on the other side of the building. So a trip back to the Manor wasted because of poor signage. I toyed for a few minutes with this in my mind, wondering if the trip would be worth it. I got out of the manor at 7:45pm, and decided to run down to the train. It would be empty on the way into the city - I had seen this on the way back up here earlier.
It turned out that there was a bit of a lineup, and I got into it. On getting down to the platform, I waited for the train and when it arrived I chose my door. There were I think 6 to choose from, and I got into one of them and stood right in the doorway for a quick escape at my stop 4 stops on. And something rather unlikely happened.
I noticed someone in the corner of my eye right next to me possibly gesturing to someone about me. Was my fly down? I then heard her say "its that guy", and after that I turned and saw her smiling at me. I then turnede and saw her friend. And then it twigged - in a city of 2 million people, I happen to get into the same carriage and stand directly against the two people I had shared a taxi with to get to the Short track speed skating the previous day. What were the chances? And they were only intersecting with me by one stop. We each noted the unlikelihood of this, and urged that if it happens again there is something someone is trying to tell us.
I got to the ticket office at 8:05pm, and that is when my holiday experienced both its best second piece of fortune and its turn for the worse.
I gave the girl in the ticket booth my mastercard and started negotiating a seat. I wanted one of their best seats. As I was talking to her, a lady pulled on my jacket and said "No, wait - we've got free tickets". The olympic happiness and kindness of strangers in this incredible city dragged me into conversation with her, and her offer was 100% genuine - they had top price tickets that were sponsor promoted and 2 out of the 8 in their party couldn't make it. Paydirt! She wanted to give me both of them, and then I just followed her because she wanted to see which seats werewhere so the 6 of them could remain together. I didn't mind - I was happy to save some money. We then parted ways, and I went to my seat. I now note at this point in retrospect that the Mastercard was still at the box office, and the need to resolve seat locations is what brought me away from it.
The evening went off without a hitch - I was treated to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Buhr's Winter poems (an act of genius by a contemporary Canadian composer) and Daniel Bernard Roumain playing his Voodoo Violin Concerto. Roumain is well spoken, confident and relaxed. His music is a mixture of insanity and beauty, and no doubt gave the orchestra something different and unusual to play. Their performance of Romeo and Juliet - particularly the Dance of the Knights - was awesome and Buhr's haunting music - which depict the praries of Canada - were as room filling as the columns of wind streaking across the corn fields.
I came away staggered at the day's synchronicities, and it wasn't until I got to a shop on the way home to pick up Milk for my tea that the sting in the tail - the missing mastercard - hit me. I spent the rest of the evening pacing and checking pockets, and phoning mastercard. I wound up at 01:30 am with my one main source of funds for my holiday being cancelled without me asking them to do it.
So on days when good things happen, always look out - the first man gets the oyster; the second man gets the shell. On this day, I got both.
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